Great bear! At over 7' and change, with the great coat, did you get a bonus and having him taste good also? Here in Kalifornia, big Blacks are difficult to come by. My one and only Black Bear was only 5' but he weighed over 300#. Talk about juicy because he was feeding only on berries. Where did you get him?

Outdoor writer
That "nook" with the exposed stone looks fantastic. Very well put together.

475,

In 2003 I passed on a couple good BLACK-colored bears because I already had three of them, including one from AZ, under my belt. So I was quite happy when I got the chance at the big reddish one. After a 1/4 mile stalk, my pet .264 put it down at 75 yards with one 140-gr. bullet. Actually, that red bear is 'smallish' compared to the two I killed in the same place with the same outfitter in the mid-1980s. Both of these were over 8', very black and had white blazes on their chests just below the neck. They were also killed on the same day about two hours apart.

I was going to have both mounted life-size, BUT...sadly I screwed up by not storing the tanned hides properly until I had the bucks to get them done. So the tanned hides serve as seat covers for two chairs in my trophy room. The same thing happened with my 8.5' mountain lion, black buck, MO whitetail (since mounted with another cape) and a life-size javelina. All these had been tanned, then stored in plastic trash bags in a closet. My taxidermist at the time didn't warn me about such, and then my new one informed that as soon as he soaked the hides and tried to stretch them, they would likely tear.

Here are a couple of old scans of the bears from the 80s. -TONY

Bakes,

Yeah, the planter nook worked out real well after I remodeled it. Once I take new photos today or tomorrow, you'll see the finished nook, which has cabinets under the main shelf. Also, when I did the rock work, I had put several of the flattest rocks in edgewise so they would act as shelves for potted plants. So I have a mounted chukar and male/female pair of Mearns' quail sitting on them now. -TONY